SEC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

Hogs get one hit, long trip home

LSU's Aaron Nola, rear, throws out Arkansas' Joe Serrano on a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning of their Southeastern Conference Tournament baseball game at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, May 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
LSU's Aaron Nola, rear, throws out Arkansas' Joe Serrano on a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning of their Southeastern Conference Tournament baseball game at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, May 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

HOOVER, Ala. - Some wondered whether LSU might have been out of quality pitching four games into the SEC Tournament.

Not even close.

Five LSU pitchers with a combined two starts this season held Arkansas to one hit as the No. 2 Tigers beat the No. 14 Razorbacks 3-1 Saturday in a semifinal game at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Arkansas (37-20) was eliminated while LSU (51-9) advanced to today’s championship game against Vanderbilt.

“LSU’s bullpen was tremendous,” Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said. “They weren’t throwing the ball in the middle of the plate, they were pitching.

“Everyone talks about their starters and their hitting, but their bullpen is pretty impressive as well. They’ve got the full package.”

LSU freshman Hunter Newman pitched four innings and didn’t allow a hit, but had four walks and hit a batter while giving up an unearned run.

The Tigers then got a scoreless inning from Kevin Berry, two innings from Will LaMarche (2-0) and one each from Joey Bourgeois and Chris Cotton, who retired the Razorbacks in order in the ninth for his 15th save.

“To throw a one-hitter against an SEC team is a feat in itself,” LaMarche said.“Then to do it in the fourth game of the tournament is even better.”

Freshman right fielder Tyler Spoon recorded Arkansas’ only hit on a single up the middle leading off the sixth inning against LaMarche. He was quickly erased when Jacob Mahan followed with a double-play grounder on a hit-and-run attempt when Mahan showed bunt but pulled back and chopped the ball right back to LaMarche.

“You can’t win with one hit, especially against a team like that,” Arkansas junior catcher Jake Wise said. “Probably the biggest regret for the hitters is they’ve got a great bullpen and you’ve got to get as many runs as you can when they give you the opportunity.

“They gave us opportunities by walking us and hitting us, and we didn’t do it.”

Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the third inning with the help of two LSU errors.

Wise drew a lead off walk and took second on Newman’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt. Wise went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Eric Fisher and scored when second baseman Mason Katz dropped Mahan’s shallow fly ball while attempting to make an over-the-shoulder catch. Katz’s catch was made more difficult with the Tigers playing the infield in with the runner on third and no outs.

Newman minimized the damage, getting Matt Vinson on a strikeout and Brian Anderson on a flyout to end the third inning and strand two runners.

The Razorbacks also left two runners on in the fourth inning against Newman after Mahan walked and Wise was hit by a pitch.

LSU’s pitchers retired the final 11 Arkansas batters.

“We obviously didn’t take advantage of the situations that we did have,” Spoon said. “Basically we just got ourselves out a lot. We popped a lot of balls up. We just weren’t very good offensively today.”

LSU third baseman Christian Ibarra tripled Arkansas’ hit total by himself, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI.

“It was Christian’s day to be the hero,” Tigers Coach Paul Mainieri said. “He had a phenomenal game.”

LSU took a 2-1 lead with two runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Katz drew a lead off walk off reliever Brandon Moore. Raph Rhymes’ hit-and-run single sent Katz to third, and he scored on Ibarra’s single.

Ty Ross then put down a sacrifice bunt against Michael Gunn - who replaced Moore - to advance Rhymes and Ibarra to second and third. Tyler Moore hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Brett McAfee and Rhymes beat the throw home.

Ibarra had another RBI double in the seventh inning to score Jared Foster and make it 3-1.

Arkansas starter Randall Fant pitched a scoreless 4 2/3 innings but was replaced by Moore with two runners on base. Moore worked out of the jam with a ground out, then struggled in the sixth.

Gunn, Oliver, Trent Daniel, Trey Killian and Jalen Beeks combined to hold the Tigers scoreless for four innings.

“It’s pretty frustrating for the offense because the pitchers did a great job of keeping us in that game,” Wise said. “Offensively, it sucks. We had the chance to beat them and we didn’t do it.”

The Razorbacks hit .307 in their first two SEC Tournament games (23 for 75) while beating Ole Miss 2-1 and LSU 4-1, including getting 12 hits against the Tigers - six in seven innings off ace AaronNola.

Then came Saturday’s struggles.

“It happens,” Van Horn said. “Most of the time, good pitching is going to beat hitting.”

Arkansas came into the game with a .263 team batting average.

“I’m not calling our hitting great, but it’s been better,” Van Horn said. “We’ve been fighting it all year, but we’ve started to climb out of it a little bit.

“I just think their pitchers did a good job of making pitches when they needed them.”

LSU had nine hits and left 13 runners on base.

“Probably the positive for us - and there weren’t very many of them - is that we wiggled out of a lot of jams,” Van Horn said. “LSU could have scored a few more runs.

“I thought our bullpen did a tremendous job for the most part. They came through and gave us a chance.”VANDERBILT 16, MISSISSIPPI STATE 8

Tony Kemp, Conrad Gregor and Zander Wiel each drove in three runs to lead Vanderbilt over Mississippi State.

The top-seeded Commodores (51-8), making its third consecutive trip to the championship game, faces LSU today. Vanderbilt is 0-3 in the title game since winning the 2007 championship.

The Commodores had 19 hits, including 17 singles, and scored seven runs in the second inning and five in the fifth. The Bulldogs (43-17), who beat the Commodores in last year’s title game, had 14 hits.

Gregor, Harrell and Wiel each had three hits for Vanderbilt, which has won three consecutive since dropping its SEC Tournament opener to Texas A&M.

Mississippi State was led by Hunter Renfroe, who was 3 for 5 with 2 RBI. Adam Frazier and Alex Detz each had two hits.

Sports, Pages 25 on 05/26/2013

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